


Happy Birthday, Rhett

by Tikxy



Category: Rhett & Link
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Oneshot, college rhink, reference to character injury, rhink, tikxy, tikxy fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-20
Updated: 2016-08-20
Packaged: 2018-08-09 23:46:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,854
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7821904
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tikxy/pseuds/Tikxy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It’s Rhett’s birthday and it’s not going well. (college setting)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Happy Birthday, Rhett

**Author's Note:**

> Tikxy/Paraluv

“Who are you talking to?” Rhett asked as he shambled into their dorm room to find Link gesticulating in the air with one hand and pressing his phone into his ear with the other.

Link’s brows shot to the top of his forehead and he quickly ended the call, laying the large cell phone on his desk. “Hey, man. How was class?”

Rhett frowned at Link’s odd behavior, but decided to ignore it. He was tired and wanted to get some rest before driving back home to have a pre-birthday dinner with his family. They figured he’d want to spend his actual birthday with all of his new college friends. That’s how they’d put it anyway. He rolled his eyes at the thought.

“You really not coming?” he asked, shoving some underwear, a shirt, a pair of pants, and his toothbrush into his backpack. “It’s just going to be me and my parents if you don’t come too.”

Link slapped Rhett on the back. “You’re gonna be okay.” He sat down at his desk and opened his economics book, pretending to search for the pages he needed to review when really all he could think about was Rhett was taking forever to get out of the room when he had a few more phone calls he needed to make.

“Why can’t you come?” Rhett asked, slinging his pack back onto his shoulder and turning toward Link who looked decidedly uninterested in how boring his drive back home would be on top of the ‘how have you been, how are your grades’ conversation he would have to have with his parents once he got there. “You can study at my house.”

Link frowned over his shoulder at Rhett. “You pouting?” he teased. “You really sound like you’re whining.”

Rhett blew out a breath at Link not taking him seriously. “Fine,” he said huffily. “The next time you ask me for a favor, get ready to hear a ‘no’,” he threatened as he headed out the door.

“Drive safe,” Link called.

“Like you care,” Rhett muttered as he shut the door.

Link sighed in relief when Rhett’s footsteps finally disappeared down the hall and picked up his phone. “Taylor, yeah, about that hospital room-“

——————————————————————————————————————-

Rhett was weary from having driven back to campus so early in the morning on top of going to three classes back to back, so when he got back to the dorm room, all he wanted to do was crash. His exhaustion lifted only a little when he got to the door and saw a message on it from one of their friends.

“Happy Birthday, man, - Gregg.”

Rhett tapped the message twice in thanks before unlocking the door, expecting Link to be inside since he’d only had one class that day at eight am.

“Hey Link, I-“

He frowned around the room when he realized his friend wasn’t in there. He shuffled over to the bathroom and peeked inside, then glanced up at the rumpled blankets on Link’s bunk. Not a sign of him. He checked the desk to see if Link had left a note, but there wasn’t anything there. “Hm, guess he went out to get something to eat,” he murmured, although he would have linked it if Link had waited for him. Then he could have forced Link to pay just because it was his birthday.

Just as he was heading to the fridge to grab one of his frozen big macs to heat it up for dinner, Link’s cellphone rang. He was mostly surprised that it was there without Link since the guy had taken to carrying the giant thing everywhere with him. He debated whether he should answer it or not, but when it continued to ring and grate on his already tired nerves, he decided to pick it up.

“Hello?” he said a bit testily into the phone.

“Rhett?” A panicked voice answered.

Rhett’s heartbeat immediately sped up. The tension in the caller’s voice causing him to react. He gripped the back of the chair in front of him. “Yeah?” he said a bit hesitantly.

“I - It’s Link.”

A choking fear climbed into his throat and made it hard for him to speak. Link had been his best friend for years and his brother just as long. What would he do if something every happened to him? He’d never given it a thought before, now thinking of his life without Link was the only thing on his mind.

“What? Man, talk! What is it? What happened to Link?”

“He-well, he’s been in an accident.”

Rhett felt darkness crowding his vision, but he refused to let it take him under.

“What?”

“There was a drunk driver.”

Rhett put a hand over his mouth.

“Is he? Is Link…”

“We’re at the hospital with him right now. He’s okay enough that we can see him. He-“

Rhett cut whoever was on the phone with him off. “Which hospital? What’s the room number?”

“He’s at Rex, rom 214.”

Rhett didn’t bother to write down the information. It was seared in his brain. He grabbed his car keys and ran out the door, forgetting to lock it behind him. All that mattered was he get to Link.

“That idiot,” he muttered on his way over. “Please be okay. Please be okay. Idiot. Why’d you have to drive? Why didn’t you wait for me? Please, please, be okay.”

By the time he got to the hospital, he didn’t know if he was more angry and afraid or worried and afraid. He hadn’t even thought to ask about the state of the person who had crashed into Link because he was too worried about his best friend.

He quickly gave his information to a woman at the front desk who annoyingly smiled and pointed him toward Link’s room. His heart pounded in his chest to the pace of his quickened footsteps. He didn’t want to run for fear of tripping over a sick patient wandering down the hall after he’d accidently knocked down the I.V. pole of a very sick looking many upon entering the hospital.

“Link,” he whispered under his breath when he finally got to his friends room. He took in a deep breath and pushed the door open, trying to get his emotions under control. He didn’t want a hurt Link to see how scared he was. How worried.

He pushed open the door then nearly fell to the floor when Link wearing a pair of scrubs snatched the door the rest of the way open and shouted surprise, throwing confetti into his face. Eight other people stood up from their hiding places as well, producing balloons, a cake, and some presents. Everyone’s face was bright with laughter but Rhett was having a hard time pulling himself together. There was Link standing there in front of him smiling when he’d expected to find him bloodied and broken in a hospital bed.

“Hey, Rhett, come in and have some-“

Rhett turned on his heels and strolled out of the hospital, his breath coming in quick, short gasps. He pressed his fingers into his eyes to stop the tears dripping down his cheeks and clouding his vision.

“Hey, Rhett…”

He heard Link’s voice behind him and sped up, his long legs eating up the floor until he was outside and nearly at his car. He felt Link’s hand on his elbow.

“Dude?…”

Rhett rounded on Link and glared down into his innocent blue eyes; that crooked smile slowly slipping in his surprise at the anger he saw on Rhett’s face.

“What the hell was that?!”

Link took a few steps back, startled at the venom in Rhett’s voice, the tears that still brightened his eyes, and the curse word that just rolled off his lips. He must be extremely angry.

“Your… surprise party?” He mumbled weakly.

Rhett thumped him hard in the chest with the back of one hand. “I thought you were dead! Or almost dead? I was wondering what I was going to say to Sue. Wondering how messed up you were. What the HELL was that?!”

Link felt tears forming in his own eyes when Rhett turned his back on him and moved toward his car again.

“It was just a prank,” he said with a little laugh. “So you wouldn’t think about your birthday. I wanted it to be a surprise.”

Rhett didn’t turn back to face him, causing Link’s heart to stutter nervously. Rhett was one of the most constant things in his life. If he’d done something to make Rhett so angry he never wanted to speak to him again, Link didn’t think he could forgive himself.

“Dude… it was… I didn’t think you’d get so mad. I thought you would think it was funny.”

At that Rhett swung around. “Funny?” He grabbed Link by the shoulders and shook his so hard his teeth clicked together. “You thought I’d think it was funny? You take it so far as to get a hospital room and-“

“I-I’m sorry,” he said in a soft, trembling voice.

“You’re such an IDIOT.”

“I know. You know I don’t always think things through. I-“

Rhett pulled Link into a tight hug, surprising the younger man. “I don’t know why I still get surprised when you do such stupid things. You scared me to death. I don’t know what I would do if something happened to you, man.”

Link patted Rhett awkwardly on the back and stepped away from him, relieved that Rhett hadn’t walked away and stayed away. “I’m sorry.”

Rhett ruffled his hair, causing Link to groan but smile as he swatted his hand away. “I feel like I’ve been through hell tonight.”

Link shoved his hands in his pockets and scuffed his toe along the ground. “You up for some cake? It’s still waiting for you and I went through a lot to get that hospital room for a few hours.”

“I don’t feel like I should reward your behavior.”

Link laughed, glad that his friend was finally getting in a better mood. “Come on, man. I did it for you.”

Rhett sighed. “I hate to think of what you might do on my _next_ birthday.”

Link patted Rhett and the back and guided him back into the hospital. “I guess you’ll just have to wait and see.”

“How’d you get the hospital room anyway?”

“I just asked Taylor to ask his dad if it would be alright, and he said it was fine as long as there weren’t many patients.”

“I thought you said you’d gone through a lot.”

“Well, I was in that fake accident and everything.”

Link grinned when he saw the little smile on Rhett’s face and clasped his arm around the taller guy’s shoulders. “Happy birthday, Rhett.”

Rhett scoffed. After the roller coaster he’d just gone through, there was nothing happy about the birthday. Except Link was there and he was fine and as much of an idiot as he always was. He finally let out a full-fledged grin. “I hate you, you know that, right?”

“Yeah,” Link laughed. “I hate you too.” 


End file.
